SHANGHAI—The U.S. government sent back to China a former official long wanted on corruption charges, in an act that Beijing portrayed as proof its global manhunt for economic criminals is succeeding.

Yang Xiuzhu’s arrival in Beijing on Wednesday, 13 years after she fled eastern China, was carried live on China Central Television. Ms. Yang, now 70 years old, smiled as she stepped unsteadily off an American Airlines plane without handcuffs and was helped by two policewomen into a van marked “VIP” for a ride to the terminal...